The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist
The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist
The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist
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THE MECHANISM OF ANXIETY<br />
In the very simple situation constituted by this fight to the death against<br />
the Not-Self, the subject is entirely partial. Lacking Independent Intelligence<br />
he has not yet an atom of impartiality, he never puts himself 'in the other<br />
man's place'; his offensive and defensive maneuvres are only curbed in their<br />
manifestations by considerations of utility, of strategic opportunity. <strong>The</strong><br />
attitude of the subject before the Not-Self only expresses itself by a No,<br />
pronounced effectively or not and with more or less violence according to the<br />
manner in which the combat takes place. <strong>The</strong> causes of the behaviour of the<br />
child are entirely affective and irrational.<br />
(C) APPEARANCE OF THE INDEPENDENT INTELLIGENCE<br />
AND OF THE POSITIVE PRO-DIVINE SUBSTANCE<br />
<strong>The</strong> Independent Intelligence appears, and only in the case of the<br />
human-being, at the period which is called the age of reason. <strong>The</strong> mentality<br />
then becomes capable of abstract, general, impartial perceptions. <strong>The</strong> subject<br />
can 'put himself in the other man's place', he can conceive of a Good that is<br />
distinct from the affirmation of the Self over the Not-Self, he can conceive as<br />
desirable an event that is unaffected by the issue of his fight against the Not-<br />
Self. Apart from the tendency to assure the building up of his own organism<br />
appears a tendency towards construction in general, towards participation in<br />
the cosmic construction. <strong>The</strong> subject can conceive the ideas of Good,<br />
Beautiful, True, in general, and can feel an urge towards them.<br />
But, at the moment at which the Independent Intelligence appears, all<br />
the powerful affective mechanisms of the subject are already engaged in an<br />
entirely partial view of his situation in the universe. <strong>The</strong> abstract part of the<br />
human-being appears very late, at a moment at which his animal part is<br />
already solidly set up on the basis of a partial and personal mode of life. <strong>The</strong><br />
thought of the 'Spirit' appears very much later than the animal thought which<br />
is radically contrary to it. <strong>The</strong> thought of the 'Spirit' affirms the Whole, one<br />
and multiple reconciled; the animal thought affirms, and can only affirm, the<br />
one by denying the multiple that is external to the one. <strong>The</strong> animal thought<br />
cannot rise towards pure thought; pure thought has to descend to animal<br />
thought; but, pregnant with impartiality, it turns from the partiality of the<br />
animal and reaches out towards the pure concepts which it fabricates (Eros,<br />
love of man for God). A chasm separates the two parties; they are going to<br />
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